Tuscany

Tuscany is one of those rare places that satisfies every member of the family simultaneously, which is no small achievement. The landscape – those famous rolling hills of cypress and vine, the honey-coloured hilltop towns, the poppy fields in spring – is so beautiful that even teenagers tend to put down their phones and look out of the window. The food is world-class and extraordinarily child-friendly: fresh pasta, wood-fired pizza, the finest gelato in existence, and a culture in which children at a restaurant table are welcomed rather than tolerated. Private-pool villa rentals are plentiful and well-suited to extended families or groups of families travelling together, offering the flexibility of self-catering with the luxury of space and outdoor living. Florence, Siena and San Gimignano are all manageable as day trips and deliver the kind of art and history that actually lands with children when seen in person. For more active families, the Chianti hills offer excellent cycling, the Maremma coast has beautiful beaches and nature reserves, and the thermal springs at Saturnia are one of Italy's great free pleasures – natural hot pools in the hillside that children absolutely adore.